1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to the field of data processing systems, and more specifically to a data processing system for reporting the loss of a service application executing on a hardware management console to a particular system administrator. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a data processing system including a computer system and a separate hardware management console for the computer system reporting, to a particular system administrator, the loss of a service application that executes on the hardware management system where the service application is responsible for calling for service for the computer system.
2. Description of Related Art
Some data processing systems include a logically partitioned computer system and a hardware management console. The hardware management console is a computer system that is separate from the logically partitioned computer system. The hardware management console is used to control various functions of the logically partitioned computer system. For example, the hardware management console may be used to select a partition to be rebooted, select a particular firmware image to use to boot a partition, and other management functions.
The hardware management console may also be used to monitor and report errors that may occur in one of the partitions. A service application may be executed by the hardware management console which receives notification of errors from the various operating system partitions of the logically partitioned computer system. The service application is responsible for consolidating the errors, attempting to evaluate the errors, and making a minimum required number of service calls. Thus, in order to perform these functions, the hardware management console must be connected to the logically partitioned computer system and functioning properly.
A logical partitioning option (LPAR) within a data processing system (platform) allows multiple copies of a single operating system (OS) or multiple heterogeneous operating systems to be simultaneously run on a single data processing system hardware platform. A partition, within which an operating system image runs, is assigned a non-overlapping subset of the platform's hardware resources. These platform allocable resources include one or more architecturally distinct processors with their interrupt management area, regions of system memory, and input/output (I/O) adapter bus slots. The partition's resources are represented by its own open firmware device tree to the OS image.
Each distinct OS or image of an OS running within the platform is protected from each other such that software errors on one logical partition can not affect the correct operation of any of the other partitions. This is provided by allocating a disjoint set of platform resources to be directly managed by each OS image and by providing mechanisms for ensuring that the various images can not control any resources that have not been allocated to it. Furthermore, software errors in the control of an operating system's allocated resources are prevented from affecting the resources of any other image. Thus, each image of the OS (or each different OS) directly controls a distinct set of allocable resources within the platform.
A problem can occur on these types of data processing systems, however, when the service application is not responding. The service application may not be responding because the hardware management console has been disconnected from the logically partitioned computer system, a communication link between the hardware management console and the logically partitioned computer system is lost or not operating properly, or the service application is not executing properly. In these data processing systems, it is the responsibility of the service application executing on the hardware management console to call for service and report the errors. When the service application is not responding for one of the reasons given above, the service application cannot place service calls for the logically partitioned computer system.
Therefore, a need exists for a data processing system, method, and product for reporting the loss of a service application that executes on a hardware management console to a particular system administrator.